


Calamity

by kaicho



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: No Romance, POV Second Person, Prequel, Reincarnation, downer ass ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-29 00:54:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20073448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaicho/pseuds/kaicho
Summary: It's not the first time Link has woken up.





	Calamity

_ “Open your eyes… Wake up, Link.” _

Those are the words you hear, and so you obey them.

You wake up and a king is there.

“I’ve been waiting,” he says.

And that is how it begins.

-

You are given your gear, a blue tunic and a sword, and a horse. Her name is Epona. Her eyes glimmer with fondness, as if his absence was a mere feed bag away.

She runs like the wind and you hear Korok giggling as you pass by.

Hylian knights remember you and speak of your failure, but you won’t fail again. She needs you.

Past Duelling Peaks you make your way to Impa in Kakariko Village. She looks at you with weary eyes and repeats what the king said, and Paya prays when you leave.

Your first stop after leaving is Zora’s Domain. It’s there that you reconvene with the Big Bad Bazz Brigade, who are exuberant as ever and welcome you with open fins. Bazz tells you how Divine Beast Ruta is causing the downpour, threatening to flood the entire Domain, and that the only way to stop it are shock arrows.

You remember the lynel on Ploymus Mountain has shock arrows.

It’s easy, at least as easy as running with an armful of arrows as more are being shot at you. You get the needed arrows and you figure out a way to calm the raging Divine Beast.

Inside you find Ganon’s blight infecting it, gumming up the joints and locking Vah Ruta’s controls. You manage to clean it all up but find no trace of Mipha.

You go back to the Domain alone.

You don’t stay long, Zora’s Domain holding far too many memories both good and bad. Epona takes you north.

A guardian halts your path but you’ve fought plenty of them that you snipe it while racing past. It explodes and you find another korok on the way to Goron City. It’s there that you learn Divine Beast Vah Rudania is causing a ruckus, climbing around the volcano keeping the miners away, screeching and throwing a tantrum when they get close. With some canons you get it to flee to a place you can board, finding more blight and no sign of Daruk.

That night you eat a rock roast, earning the praise of every Goron in the city for calming Rudania, and by daybreak you continue on.

Your journey brings you across a shielded forest, dense mist causing Epona to halt and step no further. You heed her wisdom and go around it, even as you pass by a korok who prances right into the mist and is swallowed up.

You open up your map and make your way through Hebra. It gets colder the further you go, but you grit your teeth and forge onwards when you see the floating structure of your next Divine Beast in the distance.

Soon you are in Rito Village, where a bard sings a tale of glory, a tale of a princess and a knight. A tale about you.

You board Epona into the nearby stables and climb the steps of Rito Village, hear of how Divine Beast Vah Medoh keeps the Rito on the ground. Harth offers to draw the beast’s fire while you disable its protective barrier, and together you manage to board it.

Aboard, Harth tells you of the Champion Revali. You trade stories of his sour nature, sharing a laugh or two, and both of you expect him to cut in with some biting retort. Vah Medoh finally lands and you are offered a warm bed for your bravery.

You decline, simply asking which path is easiest to get to the desert.

It takes several days to traverse, finding the road down through the canyon and then boarding Epona a second time to brave the scorching heat alone.

The vai guards refuse you access so you buy a sand seal and resolve to figure it out yourself.

Divine Beast Vah Naboris shakes the earth every time she walks, clouded by a sandstorm and protected by lightning. But you have the spirit of courage and you avoid every bolt, shooting the beasts’ legs out from under her and boarding without fuss.

It’s empty inside, just like it’s been empty every other time. Your sword cuts through the blight with ease but you feel as if something is missing.

You leave the Beast to be swallowed up by the sands, finished with culling them all and weakening your real adversary: Ganon.

You’re ready. You’ve trained for this, they all have, and so you take your steed and storm the castle gates for your final showdown.

-

You awake.

Outside of the shrine is a king. He hands you a faded blue tunic and a sword, and points to the castle.

He tells you, “Go.”

She’s waiting.

You take your things and have to make it on foot, battling through bokoblin camps and moblin hordes.

In Kakariko Village you are met with Impa and the Sheikah. Her granddaughter Paya prepares you tea while Impa regales you of what happened, of a knight fallen in battle and a princess stolen away. Of the Divine Beasts and your mission.

After a week of trying to follow your map you end up in the Lanayru region. A Zora tells you of Divine Beast Vah Ruta, of endless rain and water. You fight through a legion of lizalfos to make it up to the Domain and none of the elders are happy to see you.

You wouldn’t be happy if you saw you either.

Wordlessly you grab your shock arrows and make your way up to the reservoir. Inside of Vah Ruta is a sorry sight. Blight seeps out of her eyes and stiffens her trunk, the only thing she can do is cry tears of sadness that threaten to drown everyone with her. You’re not Mipha but you soothe her regardless, stopping the rivers of anguish and spending a night resting in the Seabed Inn.

The water beds are nice, and after a long month of travel you feel it’s okay to take a small reprieve.

By dawn you’re leaving, bidding the Zora farewell and looking at your map. The Gorons are the next closest, even if they live atop a magma-laden mountain. You look at your map, noting several bits and pieces of it are missing, like a book with several pages torn out.

The other two are neither pleasant either, so you sigh and purchase more arrows before heading off.

It’s hot, that much is true. You wonder if you should tame a wild horse just to get there faster, but that isn’t fair to the horse, and so you climb it alone. Two guardians sit in your path but you’re too sweaty to care and shoot them both in the eyes.

Atop the volcano screeches Divine Beast Vah Rudania. He’s a fickle one, but with some bombs you lead him to a low enough vantage point that you can board. With no one inside to greet you, and blight filling the walls, you get it over as quickly as possible and depart without a word.

There’s no way you’re going over the Hebra mountains so you plot a course lower. On the way you find a Korok that shakes maracas and tells you he’s going to Korok Forest. He points to a forest full of trees and mist, and since that is not your mission you wish him luck on his own. Several other Korok children wave to you as you leave, giggling with a secret between them.

Ignoring them you find a wild horse to take you to Rito Village. He’s a stubborn thing, demanding carrots and doesn’t even go fast, but you couldn’t find another so he’ll have to do.

The Rito barely make a fuss when you arrive. They all point their beaks up to where Divine Beast Vah Medoh is hovering, canons aimed at anyone foolish enough to get close.

A few Rito have already been shot down but a young Rito named Flyson offers a diversion to allow you to break the barrier cloaking the beast. He doesn’t survive the battle, and so you make sure his efforts aren’t in vain by boarding and calming the beast.

Vah Medoh sits heavily on his perch, looking out to the distance where the castle sits.

You take your paraglider and leave, knowing you won’t be able to return without knowing another soul has died for you.

Your horse, whom you’ve decided to name Mushroom due to his brown coat, takes you to the canyons. As you pass a winding gulch a dragon slides past, scales of simmering, scorching luster that reflect your image like a mirror.

In the mirror you see blue eyes and blond hair that’s getting a tad too long. When you finally make your way to the canyon stable and board Mushroom, you take a knife and cut your locks short. Then you down an elixir and make your way into the desert.

No voe allowed, but rumors speak of a vai willing to sell Gerudo clothing. You ignore them and resolve to take down Divine Beast Vah Naboris on your own. It’ll do you no good to drag anyone else into your journey.

A sand seal drags you forth, barely dodging Vah Naboris’ stomps as she shoots lightning atop you. You bomb her feet and shoot until she’s crippled, sitting heavily down into the sand and nearly crushing you and your seal. You give the seal an entire hydromelon and bid it farewell before boarding.

Inside is worse than you could have ever predicted. Blight lines the floor, making even traversing the beast difficult. You clean out as much as you can but you can’t manage all of it, but after a day the beast is calmed and rampages no more, so you leave.

It’s the castle next. Now that all Divine Beasts have been subdued you have a chance to finally take on Ganon.

You take your horse and your sword and charge forth.

-

A light shines from somewhere before leaving.

You wake up.

You’re alone and outside is an old man. He looks tired but he welcomes you by the fire, telling you of an old tale that you partly remember. After a while he chuckles and tells you where to find your sword.

It’s very far, but you promised her and have failed her, and so you must go.

Once off the plateau you find a wild horse that is quiet but loyal, whom you name Paya and she takes you across the plains like a song.

You decide on a counter clockwise pattern, realizing that half of your map is gone, showing only the eastern portion of Hyrule. You’ll have to get those back but for now you have a route to get your sword so you don’t bother with this small hurdle.

The road leads you past Dueling Peaks and a traveller tells you of Kakariko Village. It’s on the way so you stop through it, meeting an elderly Sheikah woman named Impa and her granddaughter Paya.

You make sure not to mention what you named your horse.

Impa tells you that your Sheikah slate has been losing power, the numerous towers and shrines dotting Hyrule sinking back into dormant slumber. You’ll have to reactivate them.

You leave and make sure to keep a look out for any of the shrines, finding one that leaks an eerie alien orange light. Inside is a puzzle, an old monk telling you about a sunken scoop.

You try to figure it out but come up empty, resolving to finish it later as you continue heading on your journey.

Past the wetlands that have been drowned in water and lizalfos you meet a Zora. She urges you to Zora’s Domain, where Divine Beast Vah Ruta is pouring an endless stream of misery upon them, threatening to burst the damn and flood Hyrule.

It tugs at your heart but you need the sword first, and bid her farewell.

Paya, the horse, takes you further down the road, away from the endless rainfall and past the imposing volcano, another place you feel needs your help.

You ride through the night because you can’t sleep.

It’s dawn by the time you finally make it to Korok Forest. Mist warps around you and Paya goes no further. You haven’t seen a Korok before but you hear giggling from afar, so you take a torch you find on the ground and follow the embers.

Before you stands the tallest tree likely in the world, perhaps older than time itself and it looks towards you as if expecting your arrival.

One look at your clothes, threadbare cotton you scrounged up, and then down to the sword sheathed within a pedestal of rock.

“Link,” says the Great Deku Tree, and that’s your name. “The calamity is growing. You must be ready to fight it.”

You nod. You are ready. You have been, ever since you were first knighted, surrounded by the Champions and Her.

A look crosses the tree’s face then, but then he nods to the pedestal. “If you are ready, then take the sword. If you are not… then you will die.”

Without hesitation you reach for the handle, and your hands are shaking as they try to find purchase. Your vision swims and Koroks dance around in your vision.

The Great Deku Tree shakes his head, a mere blurry mess as you feel vines gripping you, pulling you away.

“You are not ready.”

Stung, you are led out of the forest.

The sword had rejected you, and Paya whinnies softly from where she hides behind a tree. You don’t know what to do so you get on your horses’s back and ride away.

She follows the road as you listlessly look at your half-finished map. It reminds you of the half-finished shrine, the sword you managed to halfway pull out. The princess you halfway failed to save.

You tiredly look to the volcano and figure whatever is up there is easier than being rejected by your duty.

It turns out you are wrong as two large mechanical machines bar your way. Guardians, you remember Impa telling you. The things that killed you.

Paya spooks when a laser fires too close to her head, kicking you off and running, leaving you dazed and stunned and not knowing what else to do.

An eye stares down at you and you already know you’ve failed her again.

-

When a voice tells you to wake up, you don’t.

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this with the reincarnation idea in mind, of Link failing over and over until he wakes up to where he is in-game and has nothing anymore.


End file.
